About the film The Cat Piano is an 8-minute short film by The People’s Republic of Animation, co-directed by Eddie White and Ari Gibson, and produced by Jessica Brentnall. The story is told in the form of a poem written by Eddie White, which is narrated by iconic Australian artist Nick Cave. The film’s co-investors were the Bigpond Adelaide Film Festival and The South Australian Film Corporation. Synopsis In a city of singing cats, a lonely beat poet falls for a beautiful siren. When a mysterious dark figure emerges, kidnapping the town's singers for his twisted musical plans, the poet must save his muse and put an end to the nefarious tune that threatens to destroy the city. Project History The Cat Piano was inspired by a haunting etched image of a Katzenklavier, a 17th century German instrument (perhaps only theoretical) invented for the entertainment of a depraved German prince. The instrument was constructed from a row of caged cats whose tails were pierced with a spike when the corresponding keys were struck, resulting in a pained meowing symphony. Upon discovering the Katzenklavier, Eddie White knew this cruel, but strangely amusing musical instrument had to be brought to life as a film. The film began as a personal project between Eddie White and Ari Gibson during their spare time in mid-2007. Producer Jessica Brentnall became involved as the film’s producer and secured the iconic voice of Nick Cave to provide the narration, which was recorded in November that year while Nick Cave was on tour in Australia with his band, Grinderman. The film received financial support from the Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund and South Australian Film Corporation, and was completed in February 2009. The Cat Piano premiered at the 2009 Adelaide Film Festival. Production The filmmakers wanted the film’s animation and visual style to evoke the classical style of cartoons and illustrations from the past. They wanted to avoid making it look ‘shiny’ or ‘digital.’ The film’s graphic 2D look is achieved by animating the entire film by hand in Adobe Photoshop, drawing with Wacom tablets directly into the computer. This highly versatile technique of animation has become a signature of The People’s Republic of Animation. Interview with Eddie White Where did the idea for The Cat Piano come from? The Cat Piano was inspired by a cruel and Byzantine musical instrument that I knew had to be the subject of my next film. The actual cat piano, or "Katzenklavier" was a 17th century German instrument invented for the entertainment of a depraved German prince. The instrument was made 1 up of a row of caged cats whose tails were pierced with a spike when their corresponding keys were played; resulting in a pained meowing symphony. I knew that this cruel but strangely colourful musical instrument would lend itself perfectly to an animated film. What inspired the Poem? I wanted the film’s narration to be a poem that blends together the loose, moody and syncopated jazz like rhythms of beat poets such as Kerouac, Ginsberg and Burroughs, with the intense and haunting style of romantic poets like Edgar Allen Poe and the nonsensical rhyming verse of Lewis Carroll and Edward Gorey. It is the essences of all of these poets that provide the unique voice of the film’s main character who narrates the story. Why Nick Cave? As the film is driven by its poetic prose, the voice of the narrator needed to be the driving force of the film’s soundtrack; a haunting voice, a romantically tortured voice and a moody unforgettable voice that will heighten the dramatic nature of the story and work well against the black comedy of the visuals. A voice with a musicality and sense of timing that resonates with clarity when heard in any country of the world. With this in mind it became obvious that the voice of Nick Cave possessed all these qualities in telling the story I wanted to tell. It was also an iconic voice that could be recognized by people all over the world who would like the themes of the film. Where did the inspiration for the visual style come from? The film’s main character and narrator is The Poet; a tortured and introverted cat who expresses himself through his dramatic poetry, and his quest to save the beautiful singer he has fallen in love with from a depraved terror that is shrouded in mystery. As the story leant itself well to Film Noir, we used many stylistic devices of the genre in colour, contrast and composition to tell the story. The film also drew inspiration from the Anime series Cowboy Bebop, which is a fantastic reimagination of the Film Noir genre. The character designs were also inspired by the cat designs of cartoonist and animator Hiroshi Masamura and much of the film’s setting inspired by the photographs of Brassai. What is your next project? I am currently developing an animated feature film, The Popovich 5, which tells the story of 5 cosmonaut-in-training teenage siblings who escape and journey across 1980s Soviet Union to perform as a pop group in an international Pop Music competition. I want to make a difference in the animated world. I don't want to make dazzling CG epics at this stage of my career. Nor do I want to make a completely art-house and inaccessible animated feature that the wider public won’t see. While I love watching many films that fit into both of these categories, what I want to make is something different again – something that is both commercially accessible but made for the older audiences who grew up enjoying Toy Story and Shrek 10-15 years ago. 2 Filmmakers: Eddie White – Writer-Director Edward Alexander White was born in Adelaide, Australia 9 October 1981. Eddie graduated from Flinders University with a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Drama Performance. With a strong interest in drawing and animation from an early age, Eddie co-founded The People’s Republic of Animation in 2003 with his brother, Sam and childhood friends. As PRA’s Creative Director, Eddie devotes most of his time to writing and directing the studio’s films as well as providing creative input into their other projects. Eddie co-directed Fritz Gets Rich (2005) and Carnivore Reflux (2006) with fellow PRA founder, James Calvert. Carnivore Reflux was awarded the best animation award at Australia’s people’s choice of film ‘The IF Awards’ in 2006. In 2007, Eddie wrote and directed the short film Sweet & Sour a short-film co-production with The Shanghai Animation Film Studio. Eddie also wrote and co-directed the animated TV series pilot; I was a Teenage Butterfly (2007), for Nickelodeon Australia. His latest film, The Cat Piano, has won the Best Animation award at the Australian Film Institute Awards, the Sydney Film Festival, Melbourne International Film Festival and the Inside Film Magazine Awards, as well as selection at the prestigious Annecy International Animation Festival. He is currently developing an animated feature film, The Popovich 5, which tells the story of 5 cosmonaut-in-training teenage siblings who escape and journey across 1980s Soviet Union to perform as a pop group in an international Pop Music competition. Ari Gibson - Director Ari Gibson was born in Adelaide, Australia on 14 May 1983. He graduated from the University of South Australia with a Bachelor of Visual Arts, majoring in New Media Art. Ari has collaborated with The People’s Republic of Animation since 2005. With Eddie White, Ari co-directed The Cat Piano short film and I Was a Teenage Butterfly pilot. He also served as Art director on Eddie’s short film, Sweet & Sour, bringing to it lavish visuals that combined traditional drawn animation with 3D graphics. Nick Cave – Narrator (From www.nick-cave.com) Nicholas Edward Cave was born in Warracknabeal, Australia on 22/09/1957. He attended Caulfield Grammar School in Melbourne, where he met Mick Harvey, with whom he founded a high-school band that would become "The Birthday Party". The band moved from Australia to London, where their incendiary live shows and a string of albums and EPs of swaggering, raw-boned blues had a huge impact on the British rock scene of that time. The band moved to West-Berlin and fell apart in 1983 after releasing 3 studio albums and 2 EP's. 3 Part of the Birthday Party members would form Nick Cave’s eponymous band, The Bad Seeds, recording the first Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds album in 1984, From Her To Eternity. The band would go on to record over ten studio albums over the next 15 years. As a film composer, Nick Cave has scored several features including The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), and The Road (2009). As a screenwriter, he has written the screenplays for Ghosts… of the Civil Dead (1988) and The Proposition (2005) Most Recently, Cave’s published The Death of Bunny Munro, a novel which deals with a middle aged lothario whose constant womanising and alcohol abuse comes to a head after the suicide of his wife. Jessica Brentnall – Producer Jessica Brentnall began her career in the fashion industry at Vogue Australia. Following Vogue, Jessica worked in Public Relations for Louis Vuitton. Jessica made the transition to film in 2000 working on the Australian drama, Rabbit-Proof Fence. In 2001 Jessica produced the feature length documentary, The Walk, and 2002 created the special film project POV (Point of View), which was presented by her production company, Magic Films, in association with Working Title Australia, the Australian arm of Working Title Films (Bridget Jones Diary).